Opinion
Page 4 University Daily Kansan, March 11, 1982
A little clarification
During the semester, many students have had questions about Kansan policies. Here are some answers.
About letters. The Kansan receives several letters a day, and most of them are both thoughtful and thought-provoking. But unfortunately, many of them are too long to be printed in their original states.
The Kansan's letter policy states that letters must contain 500 or fewer words. Not 558 or 670 or 1,500. The longer the letters are, the less room there is for a diversity of opinions on the page. (No one likes to count words, so a good rule of thumb is that there are about 250 on a typed, double-spaced page.)
Also about letters. The Kansan tries to print as many letters as possible, as quickly as possible. But we have a continuous backlog that sometimes keeps letters out of print for more than a week.
And, of course, the Kansan reserves the
right not to print some letters at all. We never hold a letter simply because we do not agree with what it says. But we do hold letters that are libelous or profane, or letters that say the same thing as several others that recently appeared in the Kansan.
About lede editorials. Many letter-writers say they disagree with opinions in the "unsigned editorials" like this one.
Yes, the editors are unsigned. But it is because they express the opinion of the Kansan staff as a whole—not because the authors are afraid to reveal their identities. For the record, Karen Schlueter, the editor editor, writes editors that appear on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. And Vanessa Herron, the editor, writes editors that appear on Monday and Thursday.
About spring break. Have a good one, and play safely.
Planets' 'Grand Alignment not a bang, but a whimper
Well, the world ended this morning, shortly after four. The nine planets were in a startling line-up for the first time since the beginning of the last century, the stars stood for the universal anthem, the sun threw out the first fiery ball and the solar stadium erupted.
©1982 WAMI NEWS
290
290
290
290
290
But instead of the Worlds Series" the event was called "The Grand Association" by astronomers. This morning, the nine planets (1 to be able to name them in order, but now I
never can keep them straight—I always get
BEN JONES
"Cornet" and "Biltzen" turned around.) squeezes into an area of less than 100 mm with the sun in front.
This cosmic energy led two scientists to predict in a 1974 book, "The Jupiter Effect," that today, when the planets flew in formation, their combined gravitational forces would draw a gush of solar particles, which would throw the Earth into a tailspin and cause earthquake, volcanoes, storms, floods and other assorted tails. The Four Horsemen would have a romp. With Doomsday pinpointed and approaching, the world over worried that the world would be over.
Several of us with a vested interest in the world gathered in the Clyde Tombaugh Observatory in Lindley Hall before dawn this morning to see Ms. Rapp's family at an Edna St. Vincent Millay passage I read.
"O God, I see it now, and my sick brain Staggers and swishes! How often over me Flashes this breathlessness of sudden sight In which I see the universe unrolled Before me like a scroll and read thereon Doom, where helpless planets whirl Dizzily, where stars are bound, Like tops across a table, gathering speed With every spin, to waver on the edge One instant—looking toward—and the next To shudder and lurch out of sight!"
Well, I didn't see anything.
These planets get together in collusion every
few centuries or so, but they just whir on by. They conspired in 943, and things looked pretty grim then as well. The millennium was coming up soon, and there were all sorts of Norse mauraders trampling about England, where Edred was king.
In the 1000 years since, we have managed to put the Danish hordes in their place, but the nine planes, like the nine Black Riders of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" triology, would not return; they were returned, riding in single file, outlined from the rim of the universe like solitary Sioux warriors.
You have to wonder what it was like in 1949—whether believers were as watchful for a predicted Apocalypse as they have been lately. Was some obscure predecessor to Nicolaus Copernicus around to record any cataclysmic crashes that may have occurred? Did some dawn-drenched sage raise a questioning eyebrow to the heavens and note that the planets were strung like beads and wonder whether that was why the sky was falling?
We have scant records of the time. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for that year notes only that "In this year, Olaf Sihirrson came to Northumbria." Hardly earth-shattering.
In contrast, this year, there was a cluster of scientific articles and charts, and newspaper stories surrounding the event like rings of Saturn. So understandably, those of us who forsook sleep this morning to find out whether classes would be canceled for the rest of forever be a bit annoyed. I expected something at least as spectacular as the Royal Wedding, for which I had to arise at about the same hour. At least that event went off on time.
Maybe I should have listened to Robert Frost, who wrote.
"You'll wait a long, long time for anything much
To happen in heaven . . .
The planets seem to interfere in their curves,
But nothing every happens, no harm is done.
We may as well go patiently on with our life,
Look elsewhere than to stars and moon and sun.
For the shocks and changes we need to keep us sane.
. . it wouldn't reward the watcher to stay awake
In hopes of seeing the calm of heaven break
On his particular time and personal sight.
That calm seems certainly safe to last tonight."
Salvadoran strife grounded in coffee
I was sitting in the Kansas Union cafeteria having the soup of the day for lunch, between classes, when a friend of mine wandered in.
Hi, Bill. "Hi Herb."
Herb is one of those quite bright guys who is always learning. He teaches and writes and continually reaches for the next concept. He learns for a living.
"I like your column this week," he says and stops.
"Oh, yeah, you mean about the press continually comparing El Salvador to Vietnam?"
"Right." I say then "What?"
"I mean, either way, the war will be over fast. All that coffee wiring up the troops, they'll airlifting extra cream into the battle zones. It's a horrific job that enterted stockpiling Mr. Coffees to sell to the Army."
"That what they grow down there, coffee?"
"That. That and the octopus eaten."
Herb threads through the line for a Coke and comes back to the table as I pulverize two more saltines in their wrapper, then sprinkle them into my soup.
"The problem is." Herb says, "there are too many people in our national country. It won't work the way it's set up."
"First, they have a birth rate of 3.5 percent, one of the highest in the world. And when medicine was introduced widely there in the '30s, the death and infant mortality rates were cut in half. It is the smallest Central American country with the highest population density in the hermisphere."
"But there's no place for them, anyway. That's their second problem. In the 19th century, it was a bogot. El. Salvador's commercial agriculture remained mainly of indigo, from indigo plants."
"Lots of folks in a small place. hub?"
"Right. But by 1875, coffee had become the major export, and the pressure was on for more land for more coffee. The coffee oligarchy controlled the government, and in
"Blue ink?"
1882, it dissolved its last barriers to expansion, when the government voided land designated as communal village and tribal common. These rights to over 2,000 square miles of land, over one-fourth of the country, were nullified, and the growers moved in.
"What about today?
"In the 70s, as few as four percent of the coffee growers owned 60 percent of the coffee-growing land, which accounted for three-quarters of total coffee production.
"Coffee is a rich man's crop. It takes five years to grow. There aren't enough jobs in the
"What about coffee jobs?"
W.J. ANDREWS
coffee industry. Some workers worked on the estates, but in 1912, the government created the National Guard to keep control in the countryside and remove squatters. Even today, there is some affinity between the Guard and the rural elite.
But it wasn't all coffee's fault. Commercialization of the cotton and sugar industries displaced a number of subsistence farmers along the coastal plain when the eradication of malaria in 1945 allowed expansion."
"What did the people do?"
"On Jan. 22 and 23, 1932, there were uprisings in the western coffee growing areas after radicals elected to municipal seats during an election were denied office.
"The uprisings was led by Farabundo Marti, who tried to call it off when he was captured by authorities on the eve of the insurrection. But it was too late. The government forces won handily, and a brutal repression followed. It is reported between 15,000 and 20,000 people were slaughtered in what was known as the "Mantanza" (massacre).
"And the people have no real voice in industry because this sector, centered in and around San Salvador, is capital-intensive, not labor-intensive. The industrialists prefer to operate with modern machinery and few workers."
"In 168, 300.000 Salvadorans were living in neighboring Honduras (to the north).
"That means 8.5 percent of the Salvadorans went into the five-times-larger Honduras to make up 11.5 percent of the population there. Some were workers, and some were farmers living off the land in a Honduran national land arrangement similar to homesteading.
"But in 1969, Honduras launched an agrarian reform that stipulated that national lands be given to native-born Hondurans only. In April 1970, Salvadorans were asked to return the land they had and to leave the country. El Salvador's government tried to negotiate a compromise, but was unsuccessful and then the government backed off." "Soccer War." El Salvador made deep penetration into Honduras, but was pressured by the U.S. to stop and pull out.
"What now?"
"Since then, the slogan 'Honduras for
Hondurans' has remained.
"Well, the situation, unresolved as it was, just seems to get worse and worse. The poor Salvadorans want some land, and, frustrated and angered with the repression, have taken up violence again to get it. And it is apparent that they've accepted gratuitous arms from suppliers of questionable character in an effort to make a stronger stance.
"And the paranoia of communism has run amuck in the minds of the Reagan adamant that a great pressure as a chance for an easy and potentially extensive Soviet coup in the region."
"I'd send a journalist downhere to get the untold story. Someone like you."
"Right."
"Enjoy your soup."
Letters to the Editor
'Supply-side' economic rainmaking won't solve problems
To the Editor:
The economics of Harry Shaffer, professor of economics, needs a little defense from the hacksters these days, for he is a scientific voice on this issue and the economic wilderness of Reaganisms.
You remember the rainmakers. Those glob-talking hucksters on the Kansas plains who pledged to make it rain for drought-streken farmers by burning fires to the sky. They promised the soothing rains, but knew nothing about science.
Reagan, Stockman and KU's own law student Douglas Martin, author of a previous letter, have one thing in common. None of them hold a degree or diploma, and all of them are "economic rainkers."
But what about "supply-side economics," you say? Well, it has exactly the same "scientific" status as raimaking, creationism and the persistent belief in the flat earth.
Likewise, Reagan, Stockman and KU's own Martin promise that "supply-side economics" will bring the soothing rains of lower inflation and unemployment, too, but, like their pseudoscientific predecessors, they know nothing about economic science.
You want proof? Go ahead, KU students, just try to find "supply-side economics" in your economic textbooks or a course on it in any university catalogue.
OK, so what is economics? Economics is a social science with laws, theories and studies to back it up. On the other hand, 'supply-side economics' is a political fabrication and is a way of illustrating how four academic economists out of more than 100,000 economic ph.D.s. Can't 100,000
economists be wrong? Only if scientific studies show that they are.
The Keynesians were right that the 1975 Ford tax cut would be inflationary and deepen the 1975-76 recession. Yes, they were right in 1962 to predict that the Kennedy tax cut during low inflation would bring economic recovery. And yes, they are right now to predict that the economy is an economy of high, not low, inflation and unemployment) will extend the recession to 1983.
Generally speaking, economics these days is Keynesian economics and has been for over thirty years. It is correct in its economic predictions about 80 percent of the time. One can wish otherwise, but wishing does not make science.
So what's the economic "truth"? What will happen, based on scientific predictions? The Keynesians say this: The Reagan tax cuts will be spent, not saved, increasing inflation in late 1982 and keeping rates high, extending the recession until 1983. And at that time, the new taxes, unless unemployment layoffs, military increases, unemployment layoffs, drain the Treasury, creating a deficit to the tune of $150 billion and more a year, extending the recession until (guess when) 1984.
You want proof? Ask Paul Volker, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and the American Banking Association both of whom, on March 3, warned that the Reagan tax cut now will do the same thing that the Ford tax cut did in 1975: lengthen the recession.
You test it out, Douglas Martin: If interest rates rise again next fall, like the Keynesians did in 1975, you should
you'd better be ready to "put up or shut up" about economic predictions.
Chris Hamilton, Assistant instructor in political science
No apologizing
But then, you thought the good old federal budget would be balanced in 1983, just like Rangan said in his campaign, didn't you? Rangan you see, are true believers, but poor scientists.
To the Editor:
The primary purpose of this letter is not to rebut earlier comments, but simply to explain to students, administrators and legislators why Ralph Bush spoke on the two subjects of political and spiritual freedom at the Association of University Residence Halls Legislator's Dinner. However, to give a proper explanation, some background is needed.
Until the planning of this past dinner, I had never met Bush. But several months ago, I had the opportunity and privilege to hear him speak. My choice to ask him to speak at the dinner.
His graceful speaking and communication abilities are excellent, but most importantly, he says something that needs to be said. I asked him to speak on political and spiritual freedom because so much of the time, we get so wrapped up in the present and future that we tend to forget the principles that made this country a great nation.
I have lived in the residence hall system for five years and have been to the Legislator's dinner before. It seems that all I've ever heard from the banquet speakers is how well the educational and legal systems work. I concur with much of what others say education is the answer to man's basic problems.
Don't get me wrong, though. I am very thankful for the education I've received here at the University of Kansas. I just happen to believe that it is not the answer to man's basic problems. Furthermore, I know that the views I express are not just my own, but in, in fact, held by many students, administrators and legislators that I've talked to.
If you happened to be offended by what Bush said, I'm sorry about that, but I don't apologize for anything that was spoken. He didn't speak from his point of view, but from history. He also spoke because of conviction founded upon the person of Jesus Christ, a person who claimed and proved that He was the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).
I chose Bush to speak because he was not ashamed of that conviction (Romans 1:16). The most important reason for the selection of his topics was the concern for his audience (Ezekiel
David Gillogly,
AURH executive secretary
Before I asked Bush to speak, I knew some people would not be able to relate or agree with his message. But I sought to challenge legislators and all who attended with what is my conviction of truth and liberty, which were also members of the clan by a man named Jesus Christ (John 8:32, 36).
The University Daily KANSAN
Kansan Telephone Numbers
Newsroom-864-4310
Business Office-864-4358
(USPS 5654) - Published at the University of Kansas daily August through May and Monday and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Second-class postage pass at Lawrence, Missouri 60645. Subscriptions by mail are $15 for six months or $27 a year in Douglas County and $1 for six months or $3 a semester. Mail through the student activity fee
Postmaster: Send changes of address to the University of Kansas, Flint Hall, The University of Kansas, La Crosse, WI.
Editor Business Manager
Mature Managers
Managing Editor Tracee Hardwick
Editorial Editor Karen Schlutter
Campus Editor Gene George
Associate Campus Editor Gene George
Assistant Campus Editors Joe Rebein, Rebechen Cahay
Associate Campus Editors Rob Holderain
Sport Editor Ken Holderain
Associate Sports Editor Gloe Stripel
Designer Makeup Editors Lia Mansoth, Liliana Davis,
Makeup Editors Sharon Appelbush
Photo Editor John Photographers John Hardesty, John Hankammer,
Staff Photographers John Hardesty, John Hankammer,
Tracy Truczyk John Hankammer, Jane Bryant
Head Copy Chef Candy Campbell, Geoffrey Pollock
Copy Chief Candy Campbell, Geoffrey Pollock
Retail Sales Manager Amir Harberner
National Sales Manager Howard Shalkinsky
Classified Manager Shalkinsky
Classified Manager Shalkinsky
Tournament Manager Larry Lebedowen
Retail Sales Representative Barr Baum,
Representative Susan Cooksey, Richard McNaughty,
Jer Grimes, Amy Jones, Matthew Lau,
Philiphil Morrisz, Liz McShanley, Mindy Moore,
Kalvinny Myler, Mindy Moore
Sasdan Jayne, Wandered屁
Campus Interns Chemm伯森, Bady Kuggan,
Denise A. Papowski, Yevya Zakaryan
Jessica Jayne, Jerica Jayne
Rick Mt